justification by work

this post has nothing to do with the ongoing discourse between John Piper and N.T. Wright on the future of justification. rather, with the start of spring term, it is about what it means to be a christian who happens to be a student.

the chase

Maybe you don't live on a farm. Maybe you've never even been to one. But you should be able to get this analogy.

Farmers work hard without knowing how things will turn out. A farmer plows his field, plants seeds, fertilises, and gets rid of weeds that can kill healthy crops - but in the end he completely depends on forces outside himself. He knows he can't cause the seed to start growing. He can't make it rain. He can't force the sun to shine at just the right times for growing and harvesting the crop. To be a successful farmer and businessman, he totally depends on God for all these things to take place.

Yet if the farmer doesn't do everything he needs to do - plow, plant, fertilise, and cultivate - he can't expect a harvest at the end of the season. He's in sort of a partnership with God. The farmer has a chance of benefitting only when he has fulfilled his own responsibilities.

Farming is a joint venture between God and the farmer. The farmer can't do what God must do, and God won't do what the farmer is responsible for.

Chasing after holiness is like that. Holiness is something we need God to do, yet on the flip side we need to do some of the work ourselves. If God isn't present, true holiness can't be present. Yet if we rely solely on God and don't put any effort into it ourselves, holiness isn't possible either.

God has marked out the path for us to run down, but he's given us the responsibility of the chase. We have to do the running ourselves.

- Jerry Bridges, The Chase

farming is a joint venture between God and the farmer. the farmer can't do what God must do, and God won't do what the farmer is responsible for. likewise, studying is a joint venture between God and the student. the student can't do what God must do (ie. enabling study), and God won't do what the student is responsible for (ie. effecting study).

again, enabling and effecting are two different things. there can be enabling without effecting, but there cannot be effecting without enabling. in other words, enabling is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for effecting.

building for the kingdom

"Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labour in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain." - Psalm 127:1 (NIV)

"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain." - 1 Corinthians 15:58 (NIV)

every deed which spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honoured in the world - all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation which God will one day make. likewise, every lecture which you attend, every seminar which you prepare for, every assignment which you hand in - all of this will find its way into your results at the end of the day.

faithfulness to vocation

"He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth." - Isaiah 53:7-9 (NIV)

Jesus fulfilled the Old Covenant and established the New Covenant by being faithful to His vocation of the suffering servant. Suffer In Silence Plus Extra Confinement (three days and three nights in the abode of the dead)!

as a christian who happens to be a student, you build for the kingdom by being faithful to your vocation of putting the work to rights. as a christian who happens to be a student, you are justified by work.